The history of Geosciences, as teaching scenario

The teaching of science’s history can contribute to the understanding of the content of science as well as the position of a science. Learning the importance of science, the student can clarify the concepts that govern it as well as their evolution. "Using history can humanize science, help students improve their critical thinking skills, promote a deeper understanding of scientific concepts, and address common student misconceptions that often resemble those of scientists of old" (Matthews, 1994).

According to Tomas Kuhn the character of change marked linguistically can change the criteria by which scientific terms are associated with the nature and categories of objects as well as the networks they develop within a group of terms, based on whose new paradigm is constituted and marks a break with the traditional one (Kuhn, 1970). In simpler words, conceptual change is associated with the creation of new terms and new concepts around a scientific object. To explore a set of scientific terms pertaining to a particular theory, the terms should also be explored within an environment in which their scientific terminology appears. The importance of the linguistic meaning of a term is also captured by Gundaroulis (2013). She emphasizes that language indicates social change and is a determining factor that allows us to realize changes and attributes to language both a social and a scientific character.

The context of a scientific term can be a theory, such as Wegener's theory, or a wider field with clear time boundaries, such as the community of geoscientists of the 20th century. Wegener's theory includes the concepts of movement and dynamic balance in the cognitive subconscious, in contrast to the concepts of stativity and the upheavals and subsidence’s of the Earth's crust that prevailed until that period. Decades later, during the development of the theory of Tectonics Plates a significant number of new concepts emerged, in relation to the previous dominant theory of Wegener. To interpret and document the new theory, new terms were introduced into the geological vocabulary, completely changing the way scientific discourse is expressed and structured, the concepts: extension of the ocean floor, transform faults, subduction, lithosphere, asthenosphere etc. Essentially, it is a holistic approach to the study of the Earth and therein lies the characterization of revolutionary ness. This change involved the entire consideration of geological changes, highlighting the dynamics of the new interdisciplinary consideration.

In the proposed scenario, the aim is the students to recognize the new terms, the connection between them and the change from the previous ones. Through the scenario, students will cultivate their verbal skills, cultivate critical thinking, and understand the processes described by Tectonics Plates theory.